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Monday, April 25, 2016

Contrary to popular belief, chocolate bars are not made from
a flowing, brown river. I’m looking at you for blame, Willy Wonka.

Photo from Willy
Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Paramount Pictures

You won’t even find a chocolate tree, as they are just as
rare as money trees. And the Easter bunny does not actually lay chocolate eggs.
I know, this sounds terrible, but please keep reading, for what I am going to
tell you is the very truth about how chocolate is made, along with some secrets
about chocolate and how there may be a new kind of chocolate in the near
future. Yes! A new kind of chocolate. Your eyes read that right. But, before I
get there, we must start at the beginning.

The beginning:

While chocolate does not grow on trees, cocoa
pods do. These cocoa pods are harvested and the pods and pulp inside the
cocoa pod are taken out. This is the start to making the dark, delicious treat
we know as chocolate.

The middle:

The pods and pulp are contained together and then the pulp
starts a fermentation
process that lasts about a week. This step is important because it is where the
flavor of chocolate first starts to develop. Keep this in mind.

This leads us to the drying stage. From here, we have dried beans,
which are then roasted. The beans are roasted at high temperatures for a period
of time. This plays a role in the flavor of the chocolate bar. The dried beans
contain cocoa butter, amino acids (which are the building blocks of proteins),
sugars, and antioxidants; so when heated, they move around and collide with
each other (just like you would do if you were being roasted), and this results
in chocolate-like flavors.

The roasted cocoa beans have a thin, paper-like coating
around them, so a process called winnowing is done to remove them, leaving just
cocoa
nibs.

The cocoa nibs are grounded to reduce particle size until
they form cocoa
liquor, which is made up of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. A conching
process then takes place, during which the cocoa butter is evenly distributed
throughout the chocolate while and sugar, and milk powder (for milk chocolate),
and other flavorings are added. This process may take a few hours up until a
few days, and affects the flavor of the chocolate. It is said that higher
quality, better chocolate is conched longer.

The temperature of the chocolate is raised, lowered, and then
raised again so that the chocolate has a smooth mouthfeel and so you can hear a
snap when you break a piece off.

The end:

The chocolate is now what most of us consider chocolate, and
it is now molded into any shape or design the chocolate manufacturer wants.
Once the chocolate is cooled, it is wrapped and ready to be eaten by the
customer (you)!

Fascinating. Oh yeah? The new kind of chocolate, don’t
worry, I didn’t forget. This is the best part.

So, recall one of the middle processing steps of chocolate:
fermentation. During this stage, naturally present yeasts and bacteria ferment
the gooey pulp. Remember, this stage is when the flavors of chocolate first
develop. Well, research
conducted by The University of Leuven and the Flanders Institute for
Biotechnology, along with the chocolate brand, Callebaut, show that using
specific yeast strains can provide a better quality final chocolate product
with new flavors and aromas. Lead researcher in this study, Dr. Jan Steensels,
said “the set of new yeast variants that we generated makes it possible to
create a whole range of boutique chocolates to match everyone’s favorite
flavor, similar to wines, tea, and coffee”.

Similar to beer and wine, which also undergo fermentation,
chocolate will be able to have a wider spectrum of flavors and aromas, ranging
from a more fruity chocolate to a more sour chocolate. This means that we can
match our favorite beer flavor with a complementary chocolate flavor. Or just
have the new chocolate flavor by itself as a snack because it’s chocolate and
doesn’t need to be paired with anything. The choice is yours. But for now, you
can look forward to and dream about a new kind of chocolate.